SOLVED: Windows 10 Won’t Use Full RAM

RAM is a volatile storage device that your computer uses to store data and also use it simultaneously but it is used to store the type of data that is being frequently used by the operating system or an application running on it. Once your computer shuts down all the data in it is lost as it is a temporary but fast storage device. The more amount of RAM you have, more smoothly your computer will multitask by enabling the applications to store more files they need frequently. Having more RAM never hurts, but not able to use the whole of it can be unacceptable to a user.

Many of the users, when started using Windows 10, reported that when they open the Windows property window or the Task Manager, they noticed that only a part of the total amount of RAM is currently usable by Windows. In some cases, they would see an unusually large amount of RAM been “Hardware Reserved” by the Windows in the Task manager. It could be in fact due to reason that amount of memory has been reserved for the internal graphics adapter installed on your computer but if you have dedicated graphics card installed on your computer then this shouldn’t be the problem. And for some, the amount was from 1024 MB to 4181 MB which is not normal.

There are some configurations in Windows 10 and your motherboard’s BIOS that can reserve some amount of RAM making them unusable. They can be easily changed and are listed in the solutions below. But In some cases, the hardware was also found to be the culprit causing this issue. Below listed are the best solutions that have worked for users. But before you start with the solutions, you should know that if you have a 32 bit Windows 10 operating system installed, you can only use 3.5GB RAM no matter how much RAM is physically installed on your computer. You will need to install a 64 bit Windows 10 operating system to use more than 3.5GB RAM.

1. To know which type of operating system you have, simply Press and Hold the Windows key and Press R.
2. In the Run dialog box type msinfo32 and Press Enter.
3. In the SystemInformationwindow that opens, look for System type in the right pane.
4. If next to System type the value is x86 then you have a 32 bit Windows 10 installed. If it is x64 then you have a 64 bit Windows 10 installed.
5. Now let’s start with the solutions.

Solution 1: Modify RAM used on Boot

This option in Windows is used to reserve RAM that is used during the boot procedure when your system is turning on. By default, it may permanently and unnecessarily reserve a significantly large amount of RAM for it.

1. To set that right, Press and Hold the Windows key and Press R. Type msconfig in the Run dialog box and Press Enter.
2. The System Configuration window will open. Go to the Boot tab in it.
3. Select your Operating system from the list below if you have more than one. Now Click on the Advanced Options button.
4. On the upper right corner, Clear the checkbox next to Maximum memory. Click Ok.
5. Now restart your computer. Check of the issue resolved. If not, move on to the next solution.

Solution 2: BIOS Settings

There are a few configurations on BIOS that can limit the Windows from using the full amount of RAM installed. Firstly, if you have a separate dedicated video card installed, then you have to make sure the internal graphic processing unit (iGPU) is off which is is used in case you don’t have any external one. If it is On, Windows can be reserving the memory for it.

To make sure it is off, Restart your computer and enter its BIOS/UEFI setup. You will have to tap a specific key to Enter BIOS and it differs by your system’s model. It can be F1, F2, F12 or the Esc key. You can easily google the model of your system to see which key to use to enter the BIOS setup.

In the BIOS setup, search for iGPU, Internal Graphics or Onboard Graphics. The name and location of this setting can once again vary according to your system’s manufacturer so you will have to search for it. Once you find it, make sure it is Disabled or turned Off.

Also in BIOS, there is a Memory Map Feature that can give Windows full access to the RAM installed. Search for it and make sure it is Enabled or turned On.

In addition to the feature mentioned above, if you can find the below features, make sure they are in their respective states as mentioned next to them.

Feature State

Render Standby Enabled
iGPU Memory Auto
Multimonitor Disabled

Save changes and Restart your computer. Check if can now use the whole RAM. If still an amount of RAM is unusable, move on to the next solution.

Solution 3: Physical Inspect RAMs

In some cases, the reason Windows 10 showed less amount of RAM usable was due to a physical defect. So we will check the RAMs physically, and will also rule out the possibility if the slots on which the RAMs are installed are faulty. Only proceed if you’re comfortable opening your CPU.

Unplug all wires and remove the cover of your computer. Here, you will be able to see Rectangular sticks (RAMs) installed on your motherboard. They will be next to a big heat sink with a fan on it. There will be either 2 or 4 slots on which RAMs can be installed.

There will be clips at the sides of the slots. Toggle them and Unplug All the RAMs installed and make sure there contacts are clean. Also, remove any dust that may be inside the slots.

If you have more than 1 stick of RAM installed it is possible one may be faulty so remove any one them and start up your computer. Do the same with the other stick of RAM. If the system fails to run with any one of the RAM installed, then that stick of RAM is faulty.

Similarly, check the slots in use by inserting a known working stick of RAM in it and running your computer. If it fails to run on any one slot, then the slot in question is faulty rendering the RAM inserted in it unusable by Windows.

If all the slots and stick of RAM are working, inserting them back but in different slots as they were originally in before. This is also known to work for some users. Make sure they are properly placed and locked in.

Solution 4: Update BIOS

In some cases, an outdated BIOS version has been known to cause this memory bug to appear in Windows 10.

The procedure to update BIOS varies by system manufacturers and models. Access your system manufacturer’s website to download and install the latest BIOS version on your system.

Before moving with the solutions to make your RAM fully usable in Windows 10, check if booting the system with the bare minimum (make sure to empty the PCI slots e.g., removing a PCI network card) resolves the issue. Moreover, make sure your system supports the RAM you are trying to use with it i.e., no hardware limit is in place, for example, Intel 945 chipset motherboard has a hardware limit of 4 GB of RAM, and more than that cannot be used with it.

Solution 5: Update Windows and Drivers of Your PC to the Latest Build

Windows, like any OS, is prone to bugs and the RAM issue at hand could also be a result of a bug. Microsoft is trying its best to eliminate bugs from Windows and for this purpose, it uses the Windows update channel to populate the latest patches of the reported bugs. Before diving into more technical solutions, it will be a good idea to update the Windows of your system to the latest build which may solve the problem.

1. Manually update the Windows of your PC to the latest stable release. Also, make sure the system’s drivers are updated to the latest build. Check for Windows Updates
2. After updating the Windows and drivers, check if the RAM issue is resolved.
3. If not, then check if reinstalling the graphics drivers resolves the RAM issue.

Solution 6: Restore the BIOS of Your PC to Defaults

You may encounter the issue at hand if the BIOS of your system is wrongly configured. In this case, restoring the BIOS to the factory defaults may solve the problem. For illustration, we will discuss the process for a Dell system, you may follow the instructions as per your make and model of the PC.

Warning: Advance at your own risk as editing the system’s BIOS is a proficient task and if done wrong (or if a sudden power failure occurs during the process), you may brick your system and cause everlasting damage to your data.

1. Boot your system into BIOS (you may press the F2 key when powering on your system).
2. Now, near the bottom of the right pane, click on Restore Settings (or Load Defaults) and then confirm to restore the BIOS (or load defaults). Reset BIOS to Defaults
3. Then exit BIOS and boot the system into Windows to check if the RAM issue is resolved.

If the issue persists, then check if disabling/enabling the paging file resolves the issue. You can also use a utility TestLimit by Sysinternals to solve the RAM problem. If that did not do the trick, then either the RAM sticks are faulty/incompatible or the issue is caused by a failing hard drive (some users reported that a failing hard drive caused the same issue for them).

FIX: Memory leaks in Windows 10 [Full Guide]

• When a certain app is taking more memory than it normally does, the system becomes slow, even unresponsive , and users are unable to perform even the easiest tasks in Windows .
• Although Windows 10 is the most advanced operating system so far, memory leaks are still quite often.
• Check out our Windows 10 Hub for more information and helpful solutions from our trustworthy tech-experts.
• Take a look at our Fix section for complete guides on troubleshooting tech issues.

1. Download Restoro PC Repair Tool that comes with Patented Technologies (patent available here).
2. Click Start Scan to find Windows issues that could be causing PC problems.
3. Click Repair All to fix issues affecting your computer’s security and performance

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The biggest foe of ever PC’s memory is the memory leak. There are a lot of reasons for leaking memory, but the most common one is a programming oversight.

We’ve prepared a high variety of solutions that will help you to prevent memory leaks from occurring again. There could be various factors involved, and we’re going to address most of them.

What are memory leaks in Windows?

Memory leak stands for RAM memory loss in Windows, caused by a program or an app.

Every running process in Windows is taking a certain amount or RAM. The problem is completely software-related.

There are programs that are more demanding and require more RAM usage to run properly, like Google Chrome, or Adobe Photoshop, and there are less demanding programs, that actually take smaller amounts of memory.

So, when a program is taking more memory than it should be taking, we call that a memory leak.

What is RAM memory, and how programs use it?

RAM (Random Access Memory) is a relatively small amount of memory that stores data from the running processes.

Programs store data in RAM temporarily, actually only while running. So, when you restart your PC, RAM is being emptied. Each program stores its own information about running in RAM.

As programs are different, the more-demanding ones, and the programs that actually do more complex action store more data in RAM, and therefore require more memory, while the simpler programs use less memory.

How can I fix memory leaks in Windows 10?

1. Restart your PC

1. Press CTRL + SHIFT + ESC keys to open Task Manager.
2. Head over to the Processes tab, and see which program is using the most memory.
3. Just click End process, to close that program.

The program is now closed, but the problem isn’t solved yet, because the amount of memory initially requested by that program is still unavailable to other processes.

The best solution for that is to simply restart your PC, and memory leak won’t appear until you open the troublesome program next time.

RAM only stores data of running processes while the PC is turned off. Therefore, when you restart your PC, RAM will get empty, and the memory leaking problem will wipe away.

2. Use the Windows 10 built-in tools

1. Go to Search, type Memory Diagnostic Tool and open it.
2. Choose Restart nowand check for problems and don’t forget to save your work before restarting.

Windows 10 has its own, built-in diagnostic tools that’s often enough for providing accurate analysis that will help you determining the cause of your problem.

This type of tools scans your PC for potential memory issues, including memory leaks, and gives you precise diagnostics about all detected problems.

1. Go to Search, type Resource Monitor and open it.
2. It allows you to view real-time data about your system.

3. Check for driver updates

1. Go to Search, type Device Manager, and open it.
2. Check any driver that has the yellow exclamation mark sign next to it.
3. Right-click on it, and choose Update driver software…
4. Follow on-screen instructions from the wizard.

Outdated drivers can be a cause to various problems in Windows 10, including memory leaks.

While an outdated driver doesn’t necessarily have to affect any program, and therefore cause memory leak, it itself can use more memory than it should.

But, if you don’t know which driver exactly should be updated, checking each driver individually is too much work. So, you should try some other method for updating drivers in Windows 10.

We strongly recommend the DriverFix t ool to update your drivers in order to avoid the permanent damage to your PC by manually downloading the wrong driver versions.

Once installed, this great tool will check your installed driver versions against its cloud database of the latest versions and will download the updates automatically.

All you need to do is wait for the scan to complete.

Keep in mind that updating your drivers is an advanced procedure. If you’re not careful, you can cause permanent damage to your system by downloading the wrong driver versions.

However, we recommend you to download this driver updater tool (100% safe and tested by us) to do it automatically. Thus, you will prevent memory leak and even permanent damage to your PC.

DriverFix

4. Remove malware

Just like outdated drivers, malware and other kind of malicious software is a cause of many known problems in Windows, and causing memory leaks is not an exception.

Run a System Scan to discover potential errors

So, if your PCis plagued with malicious software, it almost certainly won’t perform well (depending on the malicious software type).

The only logical thing to do in this case is to actually clean up our PCs from these unwanted guests.

We recommend Bitdefender Antivirus Plus – a reliable antivirus program that protects your PC against viruses, Trojans, malware, spyware, and other Internet dangers such as rootkits or ransomware.

The program is a combination of a classic virus scanner, a behavior-based adware detection, and also cloud functionality that ensures accuracy and prevents memory leaks.

This great software uses advanced Artificial Intelligence technologies to anticipate, detect, and instantly block even the newest threats.

The latest version comes with an anti-tracker feature that blocks trackers who try to collect your data. Anti-tracker promises to let you surf privately and load websites faster.

Bitdefender Antivirus Plus

5. Adjust for Best Performance

1. Right-click This PC from your Desktop.
2. Select Advanced system settings.
3. Head over to the Advanced tab.
4. Click on Settings, under Performance.
5. Just check the Adjust for best performance option.
6. Click OK.
7. Restart your PC.

6. Disable programs running at Startup

1. Press CTRL + SHIFT + ESC keys to open Task Manager.
2. Go to the Startup tab.
3. Click on the program you want to disable, and choose Disable.
4. Restart your PC.

If a program causing memory leak is running on startup, that’s a deadly combo. You’ll just end up in a loop, where the problem automatically re-appears, no matter how many times you temporarily solve it.

To deal with this issue, we simply need to disable the troublesome program at startup, and it won’t cause us problems automatically, anymore.

If the Task Manager already showed you which program is leaking memory, and it also happens that program runs on startup, simply disable it, and that should be it.

7. Defrag hard drives

1. Go to This PC.
2. Right-click your current system hard drive (most likely C:).
3. Go to the Tools tab, and click Optimize.
4. Select the drive you want to defrag, and choose Analyze.
5. Wait for the process to finish.
6. Restart your PC.

It is recommend to defrag your hard drive every now and then. Besides optimizing your hard disk, it could also do some more benefits to your PC, including better memory management.

8. Registry hack

1. Go to Search, type regedit, and select Registry Editor.
2. Search for the following path:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlSession ManagerMemory Management

1. Find ClearPageFileAtShutDown and change its value to 1.
2. Save changes.
3. Restart your PC.

9. Disable Runtime Broker

1. Press CTRL + SHIFT + ESC keys to open Task Manager.
2. Locate the Runtime Broker process, and click on it.
3. Go to Disable.

Runtime Broker is the process that helps the system to manage permissions on your PC for apps from Microsoft Store.

By default, Runtime Broker should use low amounts of memory, but due to a possible faulty app, this process can significantly slow down your PC.

10. Disable Superfetch

1. Go to Search, type services.msc, and open Services.
2. Find the process called Superfetch.
3. Right-click it, and choose Properties.
4. Select Stop, and choose Disable from the Startup Type drop-down menu.
5. Restart your PC.

Superfetch is another Windows service, which goal is to optimize the performance of the system. This process allows Windows to manage the amount of RAM, decrease boot time, and make application loading more efficient.

Disabling Superfetch is not recommended, but you can experiment with it, if you want to determine if it actually makes your PC slower.

After disabling compare your PC’s performance before and after. If the system is still as slow as before, you can enable Superfetch once again.

11. Disable Windows Tips and Tricks

1. Go to the Start Menu, and click on Settings app.
2. Select System, and choose Notifications & actions.
3. Find Get tips, tricks, and suggestions as you use Windows, and uncheck it.

Windows 10 Tips and tricks are actually useful to new users. This feature shows them how to use the system, along with some additional useful options.

No memory leak, but the system still running slow? Add more RAM!

If you’ve recently encountered this problem on your PC, tried all of our solutions, and your PC still performs slow, the problem is probably the actual amount of RAM.

If you don’t have enough RAM memory in your PC to handle all demands, the best available solution is to upgrade RAM memory, if you want your PC to run normally.

By adding more RAM, your system memory will be bigger, and it’ll be able to handle even more demanding operations.

That’s about it for our article about memory leaks in Windows 10. We hope that these info were helpful to you, and that we managed to solve the problem.

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